Indiana attorney general appeals decision to end ICE detainers
Fatima Hussein, Published 6:00 a.m. ET Jan. 11, 2018 | Updated 6:51 a.m. ET Jan. 11, 2018
Indiana's attorney general has filed an appeal in opposition to a settlement between the Marion County Sheriff's Office and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana that would end warrantless ICE detention requests.
Curtis Hill objects to a signed settlement agreement struck last November between the ACLU and the Sheriff's Office to end Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests to hold people who are believed to be in the country illegally.
In appealing the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Hill says the issue comes down to public safety.
“Establishing a policy that requires law enforcement personnel to not cooperate with each other not only violates Indiana law but jeopardizes public safety," Hill said in an email to IndyStar.
A representative with the ACLU of Indiana was unavailable for comment Wednesday. However, in December an attorney for the ACLU told IndyStar that Hill's office has "absolutely no right to be heard in this case."
Under detainer requests, local police hold people in jail beyond the time when they otherwise should be released from an arrest, generally a 48-hour period. This affords the immigration agency more time to check their citizenship status and, if needed, get a deportation warrant, even if the initial arrest was for something as minor as a traffic infraction.
The requests are not signed by a judge and do not require probable cause that the person believed to be in the country illegally has committed a crime.
In a 36-page order handed down Nov. 7, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued an injunction preventing the Sheriff's Office from detaining any person based solely on ICE requests.
The settlement was finalized that day.
Dave Gorak of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration said Wednesday he supports Hill's decision to appeal the settlement.
"Either we're a nation of laws, or we're not," Gorak told IndyStar. "These law enforcement officials and politicians have taken an oath to uphold the law."
Hill is not the first party to attempt to sway the ICE detention case. In July, the U.S. Justice Department filed a notice of appearance in the case and requested that the Sheriff's Office cooperate with the ICE arrest procedures.
The settlement stemmed from the 2014 arrest of undocumented immigrant Antonio Lopez-Aguilar. Aguilar was detained as he appeared at the Marion County Traffic Court to answer for a misdemeanor charge that he had driven without a license.
Once the hearing ended — without any requirement that he serve jail time for that charge — Lopez-Aguilar was informed that he was being taken into custody until he could be transferred to the custody of ICE.
The ACLU alleged that ICE arrested and held Lopez-Aguilar without cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/...rs/1020636001/
